Today, I invite you to take a Bible or maybe share with your neighbor and turn to our gospel reading for this Sunday: John 2:13-22. The Bible has two major parts. Does anyone know what the two major parts are? Old Testament and New Testament What part is the gospel of John in? New Testament Since John is a gospel, it is near the front of the New Testament, and it’s the last gospel, right after Luke and before Acts. When we share a biblical citation like John 2:13-22, the 2 is the chapter number, similar to book chapters, the larger number. The 13-22 are the verse numbers, the smaller numbers.
In today’s gospel story, we immediately know the time of year of the story. What’s our clue? The Passover of the Jews was near. So it was probably spring since that’s when the Passover is celebrated. Sometimes, Passover coincides with Holy Week, and sometimes it doesn’t. But Passover is always in the late winter or spring. The next thing the gospel of John tells us is that Jesus went to Jerusalem, and it’s almost like the gospel writer says: Naturally, Jesus went to Jerusalem. Why would Jesus of course go to Jerusalem for Passover? Because that’s where the temple is. Because Jerusalem is the center of the Jewish faith. And the Passover is a very important holiday in the Jewish faith. When Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, he enters the temple, the largest and most important worship space in ancient Judaism. The ancient Jews believed that God literally resided in the holiest of holies at the center of the temple, a space only the high priest might enter. Like an onion, the temple unfurled in layers, with a space considered the Temple proper just outside the holy of holies where other priests could worship. In addition, there was a Court of the Priests, a Court of Israelites open to Israelite men, a Court of Women open to Israelite women. Around these spaces was constructed a wall, and on the other side of the wall laid the Court of the Gentiles, the place where non-Jewish people could gather. It was there that vendors set up their marketplace. During the first century, Jews practiced, as written in religious law, animal sacrifice as a way of reconciling themselves to God. Animals without blemish were required. Worshipers who did not already possess animals appropriate for sacrifice could purchase them there, at the temple, along with changing their money into the appropriate coinage. What Jesus encounters this marketplace in the temple, what does he do? Turns over the tables of the moneychangers, pours out their coins, makes a whip of cords and drives out the cattle and sheep, tells those selling doves to take them out of there and to stop making his father’s house a marketplace. What do you think of Jesus’ response to the vendors in the temple marketplace? Throughout the gospel of John, the gospel writer refers to a group he calls “the Jews” which is curious because nearly every single person in the gospel is Jewish: Jesus, the disciples, the crowds, most of the people Jesus interacts with. It indicates to us that, when the gospel writer uses this phrase, he is referring to this group not because of their religion but because they are a group who defend tradition and traditional structures. This means, of course, that they are suspicious of Jesus—but not for religious reasons, per se, but because Jesus challenges tradition. When questioned by “the Jews” about his actions in the temple, Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” When you hear Jesus’ response, do you think he’s referring to the temple in Jerusalem or something else? How do you know? The temple had been under construction 46 years, so it’s unlikely that Jesus would raise it up in 3 days. But we know that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day. Jesus doesn’t actually tell the Jews or the disciples what he meant. It’s just the gospel writer who tells the reader that Jesus was referring to the temple of his body. Having examined this story, why do you think Jesus turned over the tables of the moneychangers and drove out the cattle and sheep? Why was he angry? This story appears in all 4 gospels, one of the few stories that does appear in all 4 gospels. And in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the focus of the story is different than it is in John. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus calls the marketplace a “den of robbers” implying the problem, the reason he’s angry is that the vendors are up-charging their products. They are taking advantage of the common people who have come to fulfill their religious obligation. In John, Jesus’ focus is on the marketplace itself. Which requires some digging to understand. Jesus does not appear to be critiquing commerce generally. Jerusalem would have been full of vendors, and Jesus does not go to the stand selling figs and dates to flip over that vendor’s tables. And I also don’t think Jesus is critiquing commerce in the temple worship space—because the commerce would have been necessary for the Jewish people to fulfill their religious obligations. They are buying the cattle and sheep because God commanded that they practice animal sacrifice. All I—and a host of biblical scholars far more learned than I—can figure is that Jesus is challenging the sacrificial system itself. The system that required worshipers to come to a building, a sacred building, in order to be made right with God. The system that required worshipers to spend large amounts of resources in order to be made pure and whole. The system that required priests to perform functions on behalf of the people. Jesus seems to say: This system is no longer relevant. For the temple, the thing that mediates your relationship with God, is no longer a building but my body. This was good news for the early Christians—that the temple building and along with it, the sacrificial system, was no longer necessary. For the temple was destroyed in 70 of the common era, 40 years after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. But this is good news for us too. An intimate relationship with God has nothing to do with a building or a priest, with the correct words or a proper sacrifice. An intimate relationship with God is one where we abide in God as God abides in us. One where we take in Christ’s body and blood—in Holy Communion—so that we can be Christ’s body in the world, loving and serving our neighbors in concrete, mundane ways. One where we speak with God in prayer as with an old friend, confident we are heard and seen and loved. One where we gather with other Jesus-followers, yes in a church building that is helpful but not necessary. We gather to be encouraged, to worship and learn and grow, to love and be loved, to practice following Jesus. Destroy this temple, destroy this body, Jesus says, and in three days I will raise it up. For we 21st century Christians, we might hear Jesus say: Destroy this church, this institution, this body of Christ, and in three days I will raise it up. For now, we are the body of Christ in the world, and even if this body is destroyed, we wait for the third day. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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AuthorPastor Sarah Stadler shares her sermons from the previous Sunday. Archives
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